Commentary

i Puts Hibiscus

the Pacific Map

\RM commendation is due to the business community of Suva which, through the Fiji Visitors ;au, a specially appointed com ee, and individual effort, has ilished Hibiscus Week as an lal Fiji institution, le four communities of the ny—Europeans and part-Euro s, Fijians, Indians, and Chinese smselves get a great amount of out of Hibiscus Week; but the des, competitions, dances, nonies, and so forth provide ;acles and entertainment so irful and unique that even the sophisticated and travelled st finds them worth a visit, e competition for the honour libiscus Queen” is a very notable fc. wadays, there is only one lard by which feminine beauty charm is judged, and girls of ices enter the competition, with qual chance. There is signific in the fact that girls of mixed I —either European-Islands, or ds-Asian —seem to head the list .tractiveness —just as youths of ar mixed blood often show ties superior to those of Euro , or Asian, or Islands race. e Fiji people and institutions nsible for Hibiscus Week do best—and a creditable “best” —with the facilities at their land. But, to put it bluntly, cus Week should have far er and wider publicity than it ere were some 300 Australian sts there for this year’s event -October), brought by the yora, which lay there for five There may have been a few reds more, brought by other nes. e occasion deserved—in fact, nded—so or 100 times more sts than that. They would left a really perceptible amount oney in the Colony; and the rity would have become rary publicity agents for Fiji, /orld over. this, as in other fields affect- Fiji’s economic future, the ion calls for bold planning and spending, by some organisa directed and financially helped le Government. the meantime, private enter is doing the best it can—and est is worthy of highest com lation.

Fiji Beginning to Look

At Its British Rulers

THE inadequate publicity given outside of Fiji to Fiji’s Hibiscus Festival Week directs attention again to the continuing lack of developmental planning in relation to Fiji.

Every survey, in every Continent, shows an increasing tourist traffic.

More and more people are world wandering, eager to spend money within other countries, so that they may see new and interesting and entertaining things. Where Fiji to day is gathering thousands of pounds of tourist money, it should, on its merits, be receiving hundreds of thousands.

It is simply a matter of spending money wisely and confidently, in order to produce more tourist re venue. It is not enough to leave it all to private enterprise.

But the question arises: Has the British bureaucrat either the imagination or the initiative to create, for the planning of tourist traffic, the necessary partnership between Government and private enterprise?

Which leads to the further ques tion: When are the cautious British bureaucrats in charge of this eager young country going to get on with the task of making the governmental structure fit the country’s needs?

There is in existence a blue print (the Burns Report) and a special recommendation (the crea tion of a Natural Resources Coun cil, headed by a Development Commissioner). But almost a year has elapsed since the Burns Report was written, and nothing worthy of record has been done.

It was in 1952 that the Legisla tive Council urgently asked the British Colonial Office to make the formal inquiry, which took shape in the Burns Commission seven years later.

Are we to wait another seven years to see implementation of the Burns Report recommendations, or something similar?

Fiji is becoming very restless. Fiji is inclined to ask itself if the country has not outgrown the para lysing slow-motion of the British Colonial Office bureaucrats. The answer to that lies in the Colonial Office itself.

The Australian bureaucrats who rule Papua and New Guinea have been scared into frantic, un balanced, administrative planning in the last year or two by certain developments and events in Africa.

Maybe, recent African events have

even sharper lessons in respect of Fiji.

The task of administering a country like Fiji now has become something more than one of pro viding secure, well-paid jobs for privileged persons. It calls for the capacity to plan, for initiative, and for ruthless drive. Unless the top bureaucrats of the Colonial Office exercise those qualities, any country “ke Fiji will sooner or later decide that it needs a different kind of administration. . A s we have said, the answer lies in the British Colonial Office. ☆

Why Should NMP or

AMO Be Called 'Doctor 7 ?

A REMARKABLY large propor tion of the Polynesian and Melanesian young men who are given a specialised form of train ing at the Suva Medical School dis play a real aptitude for the prac tice of medicine. Some, if given the chance, might go close to pass ing the standards set at the Medi cal Schools of the Universities of Australia, New Zealand and Britain.

But that is no reason why the Directors of Health in the Govern ments of New Guinea and Fiji should take it upon themselves to confer the title of “Doctor” upon trainees of the Suva Medical School, who have gained the dip loma of that well-known and highly-regarded institution, and who hitherto have been described as NMP (Native Medical practi tioner) or AMO (Assistant Medi cal Officer). NMP seems a sufficient —and a creditable—appellation.

The subject arises because offi cialdom in Port Moresby—leaning over backwards in its attempts to gain the goodwill of the UNO Trusteeship Council and similar visionaries in relation to P-NG ad ministration—has begun to describe NMP Reuben Taureka, now ap parently in charge of a native hospital, as “Dr.” Taureka.

NMP Taureka is a Papuan of ex ceptional ability, who was sent by the P-NG Administration to the Suva Medical School and, at the end of five or six years’ study, won the coveted diploma and the bless ing of the School. Accompanied by his Fijian wife, he returned to Papua, a credit to the Papuan race and to the medical training system.

The Director of Health in Fiji, Dr. Dill-Russell, writes angrily upon this subject (see his letter on p. 57).

Insofar as he praises the Medical School and its diploma-holders, we endorse every word he has written.

But we are opposed entirely to his view that the products of this or any other Medical School should use the title of “Dr.” in relation to medical practice in any British

country, unless they have gained the degree through the rigid exa minations set by a properly recog nised University.

Of course, in nearby countries— especially Asian—there are all sorts of people calling themselves “Dr.”; but they are not taken seriously.

In all British countries, the title of “Dr.”, used in medical practice, means that the person indicated has certain definite qualifications, and is accorded certain quite ex traordinary authority and privi leges. Fiji and New Guinea are British-ruled countries. It is not only improper there, but dangerous, to allow NMP’s to be called “Dr.”.

This seems to be a matter, not for newspaper argument, but for discussion between the British Med ical Association and the Govern ments concerned. That, incidentally, should be an occasion for pressing for facilities through which an out standing NMP (or AMO) could gain the coveted title of “Dr.”.

Dr. Dill-Russell says; “AMO’s in Fiji are given the title Doctor as a fitting courtesy, and I trust the same applies in all Islands Terri tories.” The PIM knows intimately all the islands of the South Pacific; and, except for “Dr.” Reuben Taureka, we have never come upon one example, in Fiji or anywhere else, of a NMP or AMO being called “Doctor”. ☆ ☆ ☆

P-NG Critics Ahead

Of Themselves

SOME of the elected and un official members of the P-NG Legislative Council in October accused Territories Minister Paul Hasluck of “duplicity” and even dishonesty over the composition of the new Legco. They said the Minis terial announcement had given the appearance that the Government was giving away its official majority, but that in fact this was “camouflage”, because the Minister could, and might, appoint Govern ment officials to the nominated membership to enable it to retain its majority.

The critics could be right. But they could just as easily be wrong, and on the facts available it would have been far more charitable for them to have given the benefit of the doubt to the Minister.

The key to the matter is con tained in the statement which the Minister made to the House when introducing the amending bill on September 22.

According to the Hansard report, Mr. Hasluck said, “Because of the reduction in the number of official members to a total of 14, plus the Administrator, out of a total coun cil of 37, the Administrator in future will not be able to rely upon the cut and dried majority that is

supplied to him by the preponder ance of official members, but will have to obtain the support of some of the elected members or some of the non-official appointed members in order to have a majority in the Council.”

That is clear enough!

If, when the names of the ap pointed members are known, the Government retains an official majority without having to use some of the elected members, or non-official appointed members, then the Minister will certainly be guilty of duplicity, and in fact dis honesty.

If, on the other hand, the Ad ministrator will, as the Minister says, have to depend on their sup port, then the Minister’s critics will have to eat their words.

And we don’t yet know the names of the appointed members. ☆ ☆ ☆

A Talking Marathon

Worth The Money

AFTER continuous deliberations lasting nine weeks, sitting often in the evenings, West Samoa’s 174-member Constitutional Conven tion in October finally got through its task of considering the 124 articles of the Constitution for in dependent Samoa.

But despite all this talk, when Prime Minister Fiame Mataafa takes the final version of the Constitu tion to the United Nations this month, it will have been changed in no real particular.

If the UN agrees with it in its present form —and there is nothing to say it won’t —then West Samoan Independence Day on January I, 1962, will usher in a Constitution which was cut and dried anyhow before 174 Constitutional Fathers began their long winded examina tion of it.

Thus it has been noted in Samoa that the Convention, which cost about £31,000, was from the public’s point of view, probably not warranted.

But we can’t agree with that.

Samoans, like all Polynesians have a love of the rhetoric.

They’ll go for hours on any sub ject dear to the heart, and most any subject is.

When the future Samoan Parlia ment settles down into a regular groove, members will realise, for themselves that too much talk is a time-wasting business which won’t help their production figures—and production figures are what Samoa is going to need.

But time enough for that.

The long-winded discussions over the Constitution may not have had any effect on the Constitution it self, but they certainly have had their effect on the Samoan people.

With sound reason, they would

have felt cheated if they had ru been given the opportunity to di bate it for as long as they wante There can never be any suggestic in the Samoa of the future that tl Constitution was brought in at tl drop of a hat, against the popuh will.

Before the draft had got as far s the convention, a Working Con mittee of the Legislative Assemb had already put in nearly one ar a half years of careful investigj tion and study on it.

What were another nine weeks ar £31,000 in the interests of peac harmony—and justice—in Samoa* ☆ ☆ ☆

Japan's Unique South

Pacific Success

THE Koyo Maru, one of the large Japanese tuna-fishing mothe: ships in the Pacific, arrived i Suva on October 27. A fleet of i fishing ships (“Catchers”) periodi« ally load their catches into tl Koyo Maru. They recently had bee operating about 600 miles northwe of Fiji; but these fleets actual! range over the whole of the Pacifi New techniques—like deep-lir fishing—have been discovered an developed; new fishing-ground located; and a huge, grown: quantity of fish is either going 1 Japan, as food, or is being sold \ other countries as a valuable facte in building world exchange fc Japan.

The late Mr. Harold Gatt organised a great tuna-fishing hi dustry which was to have been base on Fiji, but which collapsed whe his fleets failed—for some reaso still unknown —to capture the tuna Yet the Japanese are taking the! large quantities of tuna from th same seas.

Since World War 11, when Japan empire-building ambitions we r crushed, the Japanese have re directed their food-p rodu c i n economy towards deep-sea fishing in a manner certainly unique in th world.